20 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
ports $1,100,000,000 in value. Hides and skins, rubber, chemicals,
drugs and dyes, raw silk, copper, tin, sisal, wool and cotton were the
leading articles of this class imported. Among those exported raw
cotton alone was averaging nearly $600,000,000 in annual value and
constituted by far the most valuable single export. Copper exports
were valued at nearly $125,000,000, and wood and lumber, coal,
leather, iron, and steel were also important.
Each year some $400,000,000 worth of foodstuffs were being imported.
 Coffee, $111,000,000, and sugar, $105,000,000, accounted for
more than half the total, but purchases of fruits and nuts, wines and
spirits, tea and chocolate were also important items. On the other
hand, we were exporting foodstuffs valued at about $450,000,000
annually, the chief articles being breadstuffs, $167,000,000; meats
and meat products, $153,000,000. Fruits and nuts, oil cake and oilcake
 meal, and cottonseed oil also were of considerable importance,
Of manufactured goods, our annual imports were valued at nearly
$400,000,000 and our exports at more than $700,000,000. Cotton
textiles, silk goods, manufactures of other fibers, and art works were
among the most important of these purchases abroad. Conversely,
manufactures of iron and steel, such as engines and motors, sewing
machines, typewriters, and structural iron and steel, refined oils,
automobiles and cars, cotton goods, agricultural and electrical ma.
chinery were among the important factory products sold abroad.
It is also necessary to note the trend of the recent development of
American foreign trade. At the beginning of the decade the United
States was selling foodstuffs valued at $522,000,000 annually and
buying foods valued at $285,000,000, but 10 years later its purchases
had risen to $411,000,000 annually and its sales had fallen to
$455,000,000. As the urban population increases further changes in
this direction may be expected.
The outstanding fact in the growth of the foreign trade has been
the increased importance of manufactures. Exports of manufactured
 articles ready for consumption increased from $320,000,000
to $718,000,000 in value, and exports of manufactured materials for
further use in manufacturing increased from $133,000,000 to $369,-000,000
 in value. Taken together, these groups show an increase from
$453,000,000 to $1,087,000,000. At the beginning of the decade such
products constituted less than one-third of the exports. At its con-"lusion
 they constituted nearly one-half.
But the development of the manufacturing industries of the United
States has also affected the import trade. The factories must have
raw and semifinished materials, many of which come from other
countries, and the imports of such supplies have largely increased.
During the decade the total imports of manufacturers’ materials
increased from $466,000,000 to $897,000,000. The details of the table